Having a whale of a time

THE BLACK-CAPPED chickadee is wonderfully onomatopoeic. When the diminutive songbird, which is Canada’s answer to the great tit, spots a great-horned owl perched in a tree, it broadcasts a shrill ‘chi

Zaytoun Songs by JS Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell and Sayed Darwish et al Haitham Haidar (tenor), Sylvain Bergeron (archlute), Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud) et al Athene ATH 23027 51:44 mins In medieval Spain

‘T is the season of jump-scares and of things going bump in the night, when you get to watch as much as you dare of your favourite slasher film, as Michael Myers puts on his mask once again in Hallowe

Radiant Dawn Works by Hildegard of Bingen, Tallis, James MacMillan, Owain Park et al Matilda Lloyd (trumpet); The Gesualdo Six/Owain Park Hyperion CDA 68465 69:35 mins This is an ingenious and moving

Edge of the Storm Works by Bacewicz, Britten and Weinberg Telegraph Quartet Azica Records ACD-71381 74:08 mins The turbulent, destabilising and demoralising impact of the Second World War hovers uneas

John Williams Jaws – Original Motion Picture Score Hollywood Studio Symphony/John Williams Backlot Music (digital) / Mondo (vinyl) 54 mins It’s half a century since audiences were first left terrified